Mother: My daughter was everything to me

Rebecca Maonga stands next to her daughter’s newly cemented grave at Kaunda village in Kakamega County.

She stares at the fresh flowers on the grave, a sign of the love she had for her departed child.

“Accepting that Christine is gone forever is difficult. She meant everything to me and the family. Her death was a major setback,” says Rebecca.

Patrick Oita Nyapara, an Administration Police officer who was her lover, is said to have shot Christine dead at Nambacha village in Navakholo on March 14. She was 24.

Oita was taken to court and granted Sh1 million bond and a surety of the same amount on April 9.

Rebecca says Christine had just landed a job with the Teachers Service Commission and was preparing to report to St Monica Butunyi Secondary in Busia County, where she had been posted. She was killed before she could report for duty.

“She had promised to pay school fees for her siblings, including her younger brother in Form One at Mang’u High School,” says Rebecca.

Christine, a mother to a four-year-old girl, had been volunteering as a teacher at Navakholo Secondary School.

“Everything you see in this house, including the sofa sets, was bought by my daughter. She also provided food and anything else we needed in this house,” says Rebecca.

She says taking care of her orphaned grandchild has been a big challenge because she is not always able to provide for her.

In Butere, Caren Kagesh, 28, was allegedly hacked to death by her husband, Tobias Tulula Akoyi, 33, on November 30, last year. She left behind three children aged two, three and five. Benson Akoyi, Kagesh’s father-in-law, yesterday told The Standard at his Ebuloma village home in Marenyo, Butere sub-county, which his son tried to commit suicide after killing his wife.

“My son always started quarrels with his wife... he was a violent man. He could beat her senseless after drinking and smoking bhang. We always lived in fear. He had threatened to chop all of us into pieces the day he killed his wife,” said Akoyi.

Akoyi claims his son tried to hang himself with a rope after killing Kagesh, but neighbours saved him.

“He took off after regaining consciousness and is still at large. We don’t know where he is and whether he is still alive or dead. The family of his wife came here and set his house ablaze, reducing everything inside to ashes,” said Akoyi.

He said they paid a fine of five cattle and Sh50,000 to Kagesh’s family for her death.

Miriam Akoyi, the suspect’s mother, said they were living in fear, which had forced her husband to leave his job as a cook in a secondary school in Kisumu so he could stay home to provide security for the family. “The problem we have is looking after the children. We have been told we cannot be allowed to process their birth certificates until we prove their parents are not alive. We are appealing for help to raise these children since we are poor,” said Miriam.

Douglas Anyembe, a neighbour, urged police to trace and apprehend Tulula.